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Cutting through one of the most celebrated hiking trails in America, the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline threatens wildlife habitat, recreational lands and the health of local Appalachia communities, while setting a terrible precedent of building energy infrastructure through our national forests.

On a trail high above western North Carolina’s spectacular Linville Gorge, I’m hacking at the base of a stubborn Carolina rhododendron with a pulaski ax. The trunk and roots of this “rhodo” seem to get broader and stronger the deeper I dig.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the A.T., is a marked hiking trail in the eastern U.S. extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.